Miloš Dakić: If you fail, it doesn’t matter

“Full stack“ web developer with more than 15 years of experience. Entrepreneur. Founder of web magazine “Happynovisad“ and web agency “HNS Media“. Currently, 100% focused on developing his startup called “BlogIn“. Miloš will be participating on third Startup Weekend as a mentor, and he will be working with teams on the realization of their ideas. We have an interview with him where he explained to us how he started his business, what is his opinion of events such as Startup Weekend, and he also gave advice to anyone who wants to turn their idea into reality.

SW: Dear Milos, for the beginning of our interview, tell us something about yourself and what you do?

MD: I am a web developer with 15 years of experience. I have my agency “HNS Media”, where my team and I are developing websites and web applications for different clients, and we are also developing our products. One of our first projects that we started back in 1999, and one of the longest-running local websites is a web magazine dedicated to popular culture Happynovisad.com. A project that we are intensively developing in the past year is called “BlogIn.” BlogIn is designed for the global market.

SW: When you decided to start your own business, did you have a fear of failure?

MD: Yes, the fear was there, but I managed to overcome that initial fear. I have managed to do that by working on “Happynovisad” which I started when I was a student. I have learned a lot of things while working on this project. I had the freedom to experiement and therefore the fear of failure wasnˊt as strong because I was working on my project where I always tried to do something new, made mistakes and corrected them, improve some stuff, etc. Simply, I had all the freedom because I was working “on my playground”. On the other hand, when you are working on projects for clients, you have to be very careful and avoid making mistakes and possible problems.

SW: At the time when you started your business, was there an event such as SW?

MD: No. I started my business 15 years ago, and there wasn’t anything like this. Startup events didn’t start until five years ago. Then the Startit crew began to work in Belgrade and organize workshops, and that was just the beginning. I think we are far behind with this kind of the events in comparison to the world. Unfortunately, I think most people don’t even know what the startup is.

SW: Have you already had experiences with events such as SW?

MD: Yes, two years ago I participated in the first SW with my team. We presented one of our ideas.

SW: What was the idea that you presented on the first SW in Novi Sad, and what kind of results did you achieve?

MD: The idea we presented was a tablet application for companies and individuals whose jobs functions on the principle of scheduling, such as dentists, hairdressers, manicure, pedicure, solarium salons, etc. The application is supposed to enable easy business management, and to facilitate and accelerate the process of scheduling. Unfortunately, we didn’t win, but we were one of the best three teams.

SW: What is your advice for all the people who have a business idea and believe in it? What kind of message you want to send them?

MD: My advice is to keep working on their ideas, to be persistent, and not to listen what the others have to say because no one really knows if an idea is good or not. Even a person with 20 years of experience can’t tell for sure will the idea be a success, she can only give her opinion. You must follow your instincts, make a minimal viable product as soon as you can and present it to the market. In this way, you will see if it all makes sense or not. You need to hear what people around you have to say, but you need to listen only to yourself. Also, you shouldn’t be afraid of failure. If you fail, it doesn’t matter. It is better to try and to fail than not to try at all because you can learn a lot from the attempt and failure.